As we look with rock art, how do we experience the multiple dimensions? Perhaps start with this from Edward O. Wilson:

“The basic goal of activity mapping is to connect all of the processes of thought – rational and emotional; conscious, preconscious, and unconscious; held still and moving through time – to a physical base.” [1]

I find this provocative and expansive in a way that challenges me to see-with and perchance open re-cognition. Wilson’s statement references mapping brain activity. It suggests to me a wider landscape of attention.

When we see an apparent two-dimensional human-made image it is always already in the third dimension of material and place. Though flattened and abstracted by the photograph, we can yet imagine this textural and spatial dimension. Further, “held still and moving through time” introduces the fluidity of the fourth dimension – from the action of making to the changes of the stone and its environment, with the possibilities of subsequent markings and narratives. “Connecting all the processes … to a physical base.”

The image below: From a rim edging a seasonal lake-playa in the High Lakes region of Lake County, Oregon. Click for Album